This North Myrtle Beach massage parlor’s closure has nothing to do with coronavirus
The final holdout continuing to operate among Horry County massage parlors recently accused of promoting prostitution has been forcibly closed by court order.
Yuki Spa Massage, in North Myrtle Beach, was one of 20 massage parlors named a nuisance business last August by the county, via Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, to seek their closures. Each is accused of having employees offer sexual services in exchange for money.
The solicitor’s office filed the same charges against two other spas in January, and all 21 other businesses voluntarily closed except for Yuki Spa, according to court filings.
The actions followed a series of stories by McClatchy that explored the problem of human trafficking in South Carolina. Reporters at The Sun News and The State newspaper in Columbia investigated 18 of the massage businesses Richardson is now trying to close.
Richardson told The Sun News that he suspects the actions at these massage parlors represented human trafficking, but those charges would need to be investigated by a federal agency.
Judge Paul Burch granted the solicitor’s request for a temporary injunction against the operators of Yuki Spa on April 1, ordering North Myrtle Beach police to secure the premises and stating that the business at 1205 Hwy 17 S. will remain closed until further order of the court.
The timing of the order was coincidental as the business would have been forced to close last week anyway as part of the governor’s order closing nonessential businesses due to coronavirus.
Burch held a hearing March 9 to consider the temporary injunction, and the solicitor’s office, represented by attorney James Battle, presented testimony from private investigators it hired to investigate spas across the county.
Investigator Ken Robison testified that he visited Yuki Spa on consecutive days last May and was offered sexual services for money by a woman who identified herself as Yuki. He identified the woman as defendant Xuemei Zhang, the owner of the business, but admitted on cross examination by Zhang’s attorney Russell Long that he could be mistaking her for a similar looking woman.
Robison also testified that he went back to Yuki Spa in September, after the business was initially served with the nuisance action, and the same woman offered additional sexual services for money. He told the court he quickly stopped her each time she began performing the sexual services and left, citing medical issues.
Another investigator, Marty Brown, testified that he had created an account on RubMaps.com, a website with the tagline “Where fantasy meets reality” that allows users to review massage parlors, and found users indicating sexual services could be paid for at Yuki Spa.
Long argued to exclude Brown’s testimony because the online reviews were hearsay and could be written by anyone, including Russian bots, but Burch denied his motion.
The only person to testify on behalf of the defense was Samuel Owenby, who signed the lease for the property. Owenby’s attorney, Scott Hucks, argued his client merely subleased the property to Zhang and had no involvement in the business beyond helping her abate the nuisance as a friend.
On cross examination, Battle pointed out that Owenby is the owner of three other massage parlors labeled a nuisance by the solicitor’s office.
An affidavit submitted by North Myrtle Beach Police Officer Charlie Diez stated that the typical law enforcement approach to prostitution at these businesses — arresting and charging individual employees — was ineffective because the business would remain open and the women bonded out and returned to work.
Horry County Police arrested women at Oasis Spa, owned by Owenby, for prostitution on two separate occasions, including one woman who was arrested twice. Owenby bailed her out both times.
Owenby, Hucks and Long did not immediately return requests for comment on the judge’s order.
Human trafficking
Last year, The Sun News published an article about potential human trafficking occurring at massage parlors in the county as part of a series with The State Newspaper on human trafficking in South Carolina.
The report detailed how police tend to charge the women working in these parlors with prostitution, while human trafficking advocates argue that those women — usually Asian women over 35 years old — are likely victims.
Polaris, a leading worldwide anti-human trafficking organization, published a report in 2018 about what it calls illicit massage businesses, finding that more than 9,000 such businesses operate nationwide earning about $2.5 billion in annual revenue.
The report also notes that just shutting down the businesses isn’t the answer because the owners can just move to a new location with a new name, and the women remain victims.
Richardson said his office considered this possibility before filing the complaints, and all information collected during their investigation has been handed over to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but he doesn’t think they’re interested.
Richardson noted that his office is continuing to seek permanent injunctions against all the massage parlors it filed against to prevent them from reopening in the future.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 3:00 PM.
